Destination York

Over the last weekend in September 2015, thirty nine MBChB graduates descended upon York, England for their fourth full scale reunion since graduating in 1970.

This was the 1970 MBChB class’ first reunion outside of Scotland, held over 3 days in the beautiful city of York. The weekend began with lunch at a local hotel allowing the class an opportunity to catch up since the last reunion 5 years ago. The class then moved onto the historic York Medical Society to enjoy a series of talks by members of the group on “Passions and interests in the past 45 years”.

The following day, the group enjoyed various activities around York’s historic city including a bus tour, a walk around the city’s walls, Golf, and a guided tour of York Minster, the largest gothic cathedral in Europe.

The music, laughter, and camaraderie continued well into the night.

Dr. Maggie Cooke

Pipes and poetry

That evening, a gala dinner was held at the Royal York Hotel and featured an array of talented alumni with Dr Charles Mitchell as bagpiper, a very funny after dinner speech by Dr Jim Drife, Emeritus Professor at the University of Leeds, and reflective verse by the class poet Dr Alex Revolta.

In preparation for the reunion, the committee had gathered photographs from members of the class and enjoyed a “down memory lane” slideshow during dinner. These images ranged from snapshots of their time as students to the present day including past reunions and life events. The collection represents an archive of the history of the class; there are now several hundred images accessible on the web by class members, with more to be submitted from the recent reunion.

Bring in the band

A special after dinner treat was a performance by “The Unbelievable Brass”, a mixed brass ensemble including members of the class, who had performed at social events back in the student days. They played all the same tunes to the great enjoyment of all and the music, laughter, and camaraderie continued well into the night.

Capturing the past

The weekend concluded with breakfast and group picture, to add to the growing archive of class photographs, before a very enjoyable day trip to the stately home and gardens of Castle Howard before heading home. There was a firm resolution all round to hold another reunion in 2020 to celebrate 50 years since graduation.

The University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number
SC005336, VAT Registration Number GB 592 9507 00, and is acknowledged by the UK authorities as a
“Recognised body” which has been
granted degree awarding powers.